Random Thoughts on CMS...Do It All!

September 22, 2016

Note: this post is about a bunch of ideas, experiences and DevHub.

Selecting a CMS, especially if you’re doing so with the aim of re-platforming (aka trying something new), can be daunting. We’ve learned a lot over the years from a wide spectrum of CMS platforms - to get real insight into what actually works for specific use cases.

The first thing to ask is, what do you want to accomplish? If you just want to build a single site for yourself, fine; you can do that with Wordpress, SquareSpace, Wix, Weebly, Drupal, hand code, (we published a list here). Some people want to see the most beautiful site; I hate to say that happens a lot. Most people want to build a graphically rich style site showcasing the best of what they/ business does and yet want visitors to order, click, call, schedule or purchase. That could be a challenge.

In the beginning we asked ourselves what is most important for users of a CMS. We thought that people wanted to design their own site, they don’t! Now, the commercials that say design your site for free, or get a beautiful site up and running in minutes are great; however the default is you want someone to build your site for you. What goes into building a site: logo, about/ content, how many pages, images (royalty free at the minimum unless you have your own), proper titles, SEO best practices and more and more and more. How many people have that time while also running their business? There is a market for these people and I mentioned those above and here.

DevHub is more focused toward the digital marketing companies, ad agencies, national brands, performance marketing companies, media companies and technology companies that want to build something for someone or themselves...but at scale.

There are generally two factors that these types of orgs consider when selecting a CMS. 1) Building sites for multiple end customers 2) building and managing sites for a client i.e. national brands, ad agencies...etc There is a wave of shit CMS’s out there. It was inevitable as many of the original CMS’s were limited to templates and constantly evolving code bases. There was no way DevHub would fall into that.

We built first a scalable platform i.e. build 1 to 1,000,000 sites. Then we automated processes through our API driven architecture i.e. make changes across whole swaths of sites. Third, we built in the security and permission controls needed to allow all types of user skill sets to interact with the final output: typically a website.

But then we took a longer view of what a CMS should do. Once the structured data i.e. location information, business information, digital assets, content were in DevHub...what else could our users build? Enter: vertical specific solutions, landing pages, eCommerce, simple spec sites, location based sites, regional sites, proxied sites for campaigns...even location finders built for the modern era i.e. mobile...could ALL be built using the same DevHub.